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Video description:​aj (a female wearing a black hat, black sunglasses, blue collared shirt with a black sleeveless vest, and a black bracelet) sits in front of a dark grey background and signs into the camera.

Video transcript:(aj)Hello. I'm aj granda. I'm DeafBlind. I'm a teacher, a trainer, a communication specialist, and I've developed curriculum for teaching people in the community of various ages, people who are DeafBlind, people who are hearing and sighted teachers, and trainers. I live in Seattle, Washington, but grew up in San Diego, CA, and after moving around a lot have settled here for the last 15 years in Seattle. I use ProTactile American Sign Language because it's my language. It's a part of who I am and it's a natural way of expressing myself. It's my culture and my way of life. It's how I connect with other people. It allows me to fully express who I am. I can work, I can develop relationships with people, and I can be creative, all because of PTASL. Relying on visual ASL, speechreading, or writing back and forth is limiting and I don't want that. I prefer to use PTASL. So, #WhyISignPTASL, well, for all those reasons I just said!

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Header image credit: "Deaf-Blind Camp of Maryland Visits NASA Goddard" by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, used under CC BY / Color altered from originalRSA Grant H160D160005. The DeafBlind Interpreting National Training & Resource Center grant at Western Oregon University is funded from 2017 to 2021 by the U.S. Department of Education RSA CFDA #84.160D, Training of Interpreters for Individuals Who Are Deaf and Individuals Who Are DeafBlind.